


Study Rooms, Snark, and Subtlety

by sorawings



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Agender Character, Agender Spock, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Genderqueer Character, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-22 22:38:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17068499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorawings/pseuds/sorawings
Summary: Leonard finds a secret study room on campus his freshman year. It's tucked away in the corner so no one else knows about. Recently, though, he starts noticing things that tell him someone else is using it. Apple cores and red bull cans in the trash, smudges of math equations on the dry erase board, general messiness that drives him up the wall... One day Leonard comes in to the same mess he's been seeing over and over again and it’s the last straw. He pulls out the dry erase marker to leave this intruder a message. And thus he seals his fate.





	1. Chapter 1

When he enters his preferred study room, Leonard notices immediately that someone else has recently been there. There’s an apple core in the trash bin from an apple Leonard definitely did _not_ eat. The dry erase board has been cleared poorly, smudges of what looks like complex mathematical formulas still showing in some places. The chair at the lone desk has been pushed back in at an angle and the window blinds have been raised instead of simply opened. Leonard grits his teeth. He hates when a student accidentally happens upon his sequestered - mostly secret - study nook.

He found this place when he was still dating Jocelyn. Since he was decidedly not an English major, he wouldn’t have happened upon the room otherwise. From what Leonard can tell, most English majors prefer to either, a) study at edgy coffee houses and tea shops that provide their much needed caffeine fix while they pull an all-nighter on a paper or b) hustle into a study room on one of the lower floors as they rush to do a few last minute edits to an assignment due before a class they have in less than an hour.

So, for the most part, what he thinks of as _his_ study nook remains undisturbed.

The room is sort of a thrown together affair. It looks as though the architects of the building had an awkward corner space they didn’t know what to do with and decided, _eh, fuck it_. It’s too small to be a computer room, too large to be a storage closet, and everything about it is just a little off.

The door rests a little crooked, the room feels a little too cramped, the corners feel uneven somehow, the paint old yet homey. The desk is over a decade old, the chair is the fold up kind you use for outdoor events, and the single, solitary window doesn’t give the room much natural light.

For Leonard, even with all this, the study room just feels safe.

It works for _him._ It is supposed to be _Leonard’s_ safe place and some stranger has entered it willy nilly and stomped all over it.

Sure, there have been other occasions where a random person finds the room and uses it once, sometimes even twice, but it doesn’t keep Leonard from being annoyed by it every single time.

Unclenching his jaw, Leonard walks up to the dry erase board to clear it the right way, no smudge or mark in sight. He lowers the blinds, then opens them to let in just the right amount of light to read the small text on his decidedly dense A&P textbook.

He can’t stop the groan from leaving his mouth when he finally sits down at the small desk. His back keeps getting more and more stiff as the semester progresses but it can’t be helped. He has to keep his GPA up for his academic scholarship and the only way to do that is to hit the books nonstop until finals are over.

 _The_ _skeleton_ _of the human hand consists of 27 bones: the eight_ _short_ _carpal bones_ _of the_ _wrist_ _organized into_ _..._

~ooo~

A week later finds Leonard cursing a blue streak as he enters the study room- _his_ study room, dammit.

The blinds are up again.

For the fourth time this week, the same stranger has left remnants of mathematical formulas Leonard couldn’t hope to parse in a century on the dry erase board. There’s apple core in the trash bin - today, accompanied by two cans of red bull. _Stupid, foolhardy college kids._

Leonard goes through his irritating new ritual of erasing the board properly and fixing the blinds before taking the crookedly tucked in chair and settling himself in with his too-heavy backpack at his side. Today he’s focusing on learning intracranial blood vessels, but right now, he needs a second to pretend he doesn’t have three exams next week. Closing his eyes, Leonard lists off bones in his head,

 _S_ _caphoid_ _,_ _trapezium_ _,_ _trapezoid_ _,_ _lunate_ _,_ _pisiform_ _,_ _triquetrum_ _,_ _hamate_ _,_ _capitate_ _..._

~ooo~

When Leonard is finally done studying he looks at his watch. 1:00AM.Tomorrow he has an 8:30. Exhausted, irritated, and ready to strangle someone, Leonard gets his books together. He’s getting up to leave when he has an idea. With a cat’s smile and as much ire as he can muster - which is quite a lot - he walks to the dry erase board and grabs the marker.

[ _If you’re going to start taking over my study room, the least you can do is put things back where they they were when you came in. Did your mama not raise you better?_ ]

He is halfway out the door when he turns back to add,

[ _And if you keep drinking those damned energy drinks your heart will give out before you’re 30, moron._ ]

 


	2. Chapter 2

[  _Well, grumpy-pants, I didn’t know this room had your name on it._ ]

Leonard groans in irritation. He has the distinct feeling he’s been doing that too much lately, but the words on the dry erase board mock him. The room is passive aggressively immaculate - something that Leonard hadn’t even known was possible. The blinds are at  _exactly_ the right angle - his prefered angle - even though he knows the last time he was in here, he had been so done with the world that he had closed them completely. The chair is perfectly centered where it’s pushed into the desk. The dry erase board is so clear that mystery kid must have used some form of disinfectant to clean it. The trash bin has an apple core, as per usual, but this time it’s accompanied by an honest to god bottle of some super-nutrient drink proudly proclaiming on its label,  _No more caffeinated energy drinks! This will give you just the perk you need!_

Leonard takes the bottle from the trash, telling himself he’s not being a creep, and reads its ingredients. It only leaves him even more bewildered. It isn’t just some fad drink. It has a low sugar content, ingredients that are shown in numerous studies to increase energy, and no hokey additives. The label may scream bells and whistles, but the ingredients say otherwise.

 _Smartass,_ Leonard thinks.

Depositing the bottle back in the bin, Leonard settles in for an evening filled with gruelling memorization of the human brain: blood vessels, nerves, glands, lobes;  _corpus callosum, left hemisphere, right…_

~ooo~

When Leonard leaves the study room after 7 excruciating hours of mind numbing study, he writes on the board in neat, deliberate letters,

[  _Are you always this much of a jackass?_ ]

He surrounds the text with little bubble hearts and grins at his own work. Then, his stomach grumbles and he remembers he hasn’t eaten in ten hours.

~ooo~

Thirty minutes later finds Leonard standing outside eccentric little tearoom that promises food alongside its list of teas that seems truly too long to seem reasonable. The sign is lit up with an acrostic ST for Subtle Tea. Emitting a groan at the pun (Groans 3, Leonard 0), Leonard opens the door and enters the shop.

The man behind the counter looks too serious to be working at a shop with a name like  _Subtle Tea_. He has a bowl cut like he walked straight out of the 80’s but his clothes scream, ‘I have a stick - nay, an entire log - up my ass’. Leonard blinks hard a couple times to see if he is just imagining it but, nope, the guy really has an honest to god bowl cut. A bowl cut from hell. With a sigh, Leonard reminds himself that beggars can’t be choosers when they’re looking for a place open at 1:00am.

_Honestly it’s 1AM near a goddamned college. Surely they’d have more places open late within walking distance of campus._

“Welcome to Subtle Tea,” says 80’s Man from behind the counter in the most level and emotionless tone Leonard has ever heard. He’s almost impressed.

“Please peruse the menu.” He gestures to the display above him, “I can assist you when you have decided upon what you would like to order. All of our teas are free trade. We keep all of the ingredients we stock in their own, individual holding containers so that we may hand mix your chosen tea according to your choice of blend. So, if you desire, we can also customize your tea to your own preferences with the ingredients on hand.” Pulling a menu out of a holder on the counter, he adds, “If you require sustenance, this is the menu of what we have available tonight.” He holds out the menu, waiting for Leonard to walk forward and grab it.

Too tired for tact, or, you know, rational thinking, Leonard looks at the blond bus boy and asks,

“Is he for real?”

The blond lifts his head from the table he was busing and says in a mildly reprimanding tone,

“  _They_ are agender and prefer they/them pronouns, and yes, they are for real.” While the eyebrow the kid raises is not as nearly rebuking as Leonard’s can be, Leonard gets the message. “Problem?”

“I’m sorry,” Leonard sighs after he turns to 80’s-Person. “I’m bad about the whole gender non-binary thing but I respect it. I’m just really tired.” He walks forward, taking the menu awkwardly. “Thank you.”

“I appreciate the apology for your rudeness, and I apologize that Jim has matched lack of tact with an equal lack of tact.”

 _Not one to mince words_.

Walking over toward the tables, Leonard turns to the kid, Jim, and asks,

“What’s a table you haven’t bused? I don’t want to make you have to clean one twice.”

Jim gestures at a few tables along the wall. Leonard nods his head then says before he goes to sit down,

“What’s that guy’s name by the way? I don’t want to keep referring to them as 80’s-hair-guy in my head.”

Jim lets out a startled laugh. “Their name is Spock, and, while you got the pronouns right, you’re still missing the mark by calling them a guy. Close though. I give you a 4 out of 10.”

“Everyone’s a damn critic,” Leonard grumbles.

Walking over to a table in the corner, Leonard keeps muttering to himself,  _I just want a damn sandwich. I’ve been studying 7 hours and I’m tired.._. He know he looks kind of crazy with dark rimmed eyes and talking to himself, but he doesn’t give a goddamn. He wasn’t kidding. He is  _incredibly_ tired. He continues this small diatribe to himself as he looks over the soups and sandwiches that Subtle Tea has to offer.

Leonard tries to decide what he wants. He could go the grilled cheese and tomato soup route - the menu promises gruyere and white cheddar cheeses on fancy bread and fresh basil and tomato soupy goodness. Or, he could go for a french dip and some french onion soup - delicate oniony goodness and a delicious gruyere covered, soup soaked crouton. Leonard is salivating at the possibilities. He thinks he has almost decided when he hears loud snapping in his face and whips his head up.

“  _What the hell_ ,” Leonard snaps. He rubs his traitorous eyes for drooping down and closing on him like that. He is trying to order food and he  _fell asleep_.

 _When did this become my life?_ Leonard groans (Groans 4, Leonard 0).

Jim rolls his eyes, “food now, sleep later, Grumpy. I don’t want you passing out and banging your head. I clean tables, not blood.”

Leonard snaps, “there wouldn’t be blood, asshole, there would be mild bruising or, at worst, a mild concussion. You best pray no one ever gets a cut on their head or face in here. Cranial cuts bleed like crazy.”

Jim snaps right back with, “Christ, man. Who pissed in your cereal?”

Leonard rubs his eyes with his palms so hard he sees white for a second.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’m grumpy on a good day and today I’m running on 2 hours of sleep and 17 hours of classes and studying. I’m an ass, I’m sorry, just let me order a sandwich and I’ll shut my trap and get out of your hair.”

Swooping in to the rescue, though Leonard doubts that was his intent, Spock asks in that still eerie, emotionless tone,

“Have you decided what you would like to order?”

Thinking,  _fuck it_ , Leonard decides, “I’ll have the grilled cheese and the tomato basil soup, please.”

It is the less healthy option, but Leonard just wants some damn comfort food and to actually get more than four hours of sleep. Damn scholarships and their damn fine print. Even with his impeccable marks, Leonard had only been granted four semesters of academic scholarship. After that he would only be able to afford two semesters using financial aid and the savings Leonard had been scraping together since he graduated high school at 17. Living in San Francisco is not cheap and it’s a big part of the stress on his budget.

So, Leonard is getting a four year medical degree  _with_ clinicals in 3 years. Only one more year to go.

Not realizing that he has dozed off  _again_ , Leonard jolts awake when the most delicious looking grilled cheese he has ever seen is put in front of him.

“You aren’t a human. You are a magical man of food and deliciousness,” Leonard practically moans deliriously in Spock’s direction. The food smells so good.

“Person!” Jim pipes up from where he is swabbing a table in the back.

Leonard shakes his head.  _They/their. They they they. Their their their. Christ._

“Sorry,” he intones to Spock as  _they_ make  _their_ way back to the register.

Deciding he had made enough of an ass of himself twice over, Leonard eats his food - which tastes as good as it smells - tips big, and stumbles the 5 blocks to his apartment where he proceeds to fall into a coma.


	3. Chapter 3

[ _ I’ll have you know I am actually a magical rainbow of sunshine. You just bring out the worst in me, Grumpy Pants. _ ]

Leonard groans (Groans 5, Leonard 0). When did this become his life? It feels like this is his biggest social interaction this semester and it has been through passive aggressive notes on a dry erase board. There is only a black marker sitting at the bottom of the board but somehow the kid put up a rainbow and multicolored hearts all around his text. 

_ The damn kid brought more markers just for this. _

Giving up and letting life do whatever crazy shit it wants to to him, Leonard just settles in with his A&P book and mentally prepares himself for another draining 7 hour study session. At least he had a solid 8 hours of sleep last night and Geoff, the godsend, brought him coffee when they met for class this morning.

~ooo~

The semester continues on like that with Leonard sharing his secret study room with this mysterious person, exchanging scathing remarks and sarcastic notes through the dry erase board. The kid on the other side of this strange exchange has continued his snarky upkeep of the room. Whenever Leonard comes into the room to study, the shades are always at that perfect angle that the kid memorised even before their third exchange had passed. He always finds a new apple core and that same stupid natural energy drink left in the garbage bin. The board is spotless besides whatever saucy remark the kid left behind for Leonard to read.  _ The kid has actually switched to the natural energy drink permanently, for christ sake. _ That’s more than Leonard ever managed to get Jocelyn to do. 

Leonard’s heart wrenches.

Shit.

~ooo~

[ _ If the human heart is the strongest muscle in the body, why is it so easily broken into pieces? _ ]

Leonard doesn’t know why he’s suddenly feeling poetic - why now, six months after the breakup, he’s still gets overwhelmed with a sense of loss at the thought of her - but here he is, a lonely, depressed med student with no one. 

Well, that’s not exactly true. He has M’benga and Chapel. He calls his mama on occasion so she knows he’s not dead. He and Joce did agreed they would take time and let everything heal but when things were better they would try to be close again, as friends. Still, he spends all his time studying. The highlight of his life is whenever he has been particularly thrifty one week and treats himself to one of the delicious sandwiches at Subtle Tea. 

He hasn’t even tried their actual tea yet. 

Maybe this summer, when he’s doing clinicals full time instead of classes, he’ll be able to afford it. 

Leonard pretends not to notice how pathetic that sounds. 

~ooo~

[ _ You can put the broken pieces back together and you’ll learn to function just fine. Think of it like a glass mosiac. It’ll still be a little broken, but it will all the more be beautiful for it. _ ]

Leonard stares at the board. He doesn’t know how to parse this. This mystery person is being genuine and kind, not acerbic or mocking. 

[ _ Don’t you need to open up to people for that kind of thing? The gluing agent or the catalyst or whatever? _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ Go make friends, my little butterfly. Take off your grumpy pants and put on your bravery britches. _ ]

Leonard snickers.

[ _ Get your head out of my pants/britches. And people and me don’t get along all that hot. I’m not really a people person. It’s better this way. _ ]

_ ~ooo~ _

[ _ Is it? _ ]

Leonard rubs his eyes tiredly. A new habit. 

[ _ Yeah, Socrates. It certainly feels like it. _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ It isn’t. _ ]

A groan. (6, 0)

[ _ Well, it’s easier then. _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ Easier isn’t better. _ ]

A sigh.

[ _ Touché. _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ Well then, what’s your major? _ ]

A raised eyebrow.

[ _ Small talk? Really? _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ Have anyone better to talk to? _ ]

The kid has him there. 

[ _ You win this round, asshole. I’m doing my MD. _ ]

~ooo~

[ _ I’ll just pretend I didn’t do a little victory dance.  _

_ MD? You’re going to be a doc, Grumpy Pants? With your bedside manner? _

_ I’m astrophysics, by the way. _ ]

Leonard lets out what feels like the first genuine laugh in a really long time. 

[ _ In the ER most patients deserve my ire.  _

_ And astrophysics? Really? _ ]

_ ~ooo~ _

[ _ Yeah, astrophysics. Do you even understand how epic space is? It’s awesome and huge and there is so much we don’t know, so much beyond what we can even see, so much to explore. Go look at the night sky, why don’t you. Take a deep breath and for a second you’ll feel one with the universe. You need to remember to breathe sometimes, Grumpy Pants. Stress will get you as bad as crazy caffeinated beverages. _ ]

Leonard glares at the board as if it will somehow transfer his irritation onto Mystery Kid. He may be right, but that doesn’t mean Leonard has to like it. 

[ _ Don’t hold your breath for me to do sappy shit like that. _ ]

~ooo~

Leonard pretends it’s a total coincidence. An accident, he tells himself. He just happens to be walking by small park when he just so happens to have stayed late studying again and there just so happens to be the perfect bench just sitting there, inviting him to lay down. 

He does.

Leonard lays on a park bench that somehow, has view of the sky beyond the trees of the park. The leaves act as a frame for the few twinkling stars that can be seen in a city with so much light pollution. He takes a breath. 

It’s beautiful. 


	4. Chapter 4

[ _ Did you make a pun? Did you seriously just make a pun at me? I’m offended. This is me crying infinite tears of sorrow at such a betrayal of our blooming friendship. _ ]

[ _ Suck it up. And we’re not friends. It’s not like anyone can see the stars in this crammed city anyway. Too much light pollution. _ ]

_ ~ooo~ _

[ _ You went out to see the stars! 2, 0 in my favor, my friend. _ ]

[ _ You may have won this battle but you won’t win the war, not-my-friend. I will never concede defeat. _ ]

_ ~ooo~ _

[ _ Drive North until the city lights are a small blip in your rear view window. Bring a blanket and remember to just breathe. Just be. _ ]

[ _ Who has time for frivolous shit like that? _ ]

~ooo~

The thing is, Leonard makes time for that. On Saturday, when he should be preparing for a practicum he has on Monday, Leonard drives North until San Francisco is just a speck on his rear view mirror. He pulls out a sleeping bag he has from high school that he never really expected to use and settles in to view the stars. 

This far away from the city, the sky is full of stars. When he was young and still in Georgia, his daddy would sometimes take him out of Savannah, into the barren stretch between cities, and they would lie on the bed of his truck together, just like this, looking at the sky. He’d be lying if he said this is the most amount of stars in the sky he has ever seen - back in Georgia, he and his daddy could get farther from light pollution - but this, now,  lying under the stars and letting himself feel wonder and just how vast this universe is, Leonard can really breathe for the first time a long time.

~ooo~

Leonard is back at Subtle Tea. He’s only managed to come here a couple times this semester with his budget as tight as it is. Spock isn’t behind the counter this time. Instead a no nonsense looking woman is behind the counter.

“Welcome to Subtle Tea,” she says. Her face is serious but her manner is not unkind. “The menu of our teas is there above me but we can also make something custom, if you prefer, so long as we have the ingredients on hand. The food menus are right here,” she gestures to where they are on the counter much like Spock had. 

“He’s been here before, Ny!” Jim yells from a supply closet in the back.

The lady rolls her eyes at that. 

Remembering the first time he came here and how much he put his foot in his mouth, he asks,

“Uh, what are your pronouns?” He rubs the back of his neck nervously. “First time I came here I made a total ass of myself to one of your coworkers and I’d really prefer not to repeat the experience.”

The woman’s face softens a bit.

“She/her,” she smiles. “It’s nice to see someone take an experience like that and bringing it into their life elsewhere. Spock would be glad to hear it. I’ve been with them 4 years and I haven’t seen a quick turn around like this in anyone before. Not enough people think to ask about pronouns.”

Leonard looks down a little awkward. He hadn’t really thought about pronouns or gender again until now. 

Still, baby steps. 

Reaching across the counter, the woman offers her hand with a smile,

“Nyota Uhura.”

“Leonard McCoy,” Leonard returns and grasps her hand.

~ooo~

He’s is munching on the second half of his grilled cheese, coveting each bite and dipping it in his tomato basil soup, when Leonard starts thinking, for about the millionth time, how, after weeks of this odd back and forth through text on a board, he and mystery kid still haven’t run into one another. You would think that by now one of them would have walked in on the other by now, but no. They are exactly opposite matched in study times. 

Somehow, Leonard can’t decide if it’s a good thing or not.

~ooo~

When Leonard gets to the study room a few days later, he finds text waiting for him on the board and smiles to see a response waiting for him. The feels a spike in his blood pressure when he sees what it says.

_ [Tell me something about you.]  _

How do people do this again?

[ _ Bonding? Really? Are we going to sing kumbaya now?] _

~ooo~

_ [I already know you’re getting over an ex and work too hard - not enough fun. Tell me something new.] _

_ [Who the hell said I have an ex?] _

~ooo~

_ [Heart broken into pieces? Where else does that shit come from?] _

_ [What would you know about it?] _

~ooo~

_ [I know breakups suck balls and that if you keep working too hard you’ll run yourself into the ground.] _

_ [Now you sound like her.] _

~ooo~

_ [A her, then. Was she pretty?] _

_ [What kind of question is that? Of course she was pretty. Damn beautiful. Still is.] _

~ooo~

_ [That bites. Sorry, man.] _

_ [Assuming gender now, are we?] _

He was being an ass turning things around when honestly he sucks majorly at gender issues, but still. 

~ooo~

_ [Man is frequently used as gender neutral, you ass. What do you identify as, then?] _

_ [Male, not that it’s any of your business.] _

~ooo~

_ [Now we’re bonding! I identify as male too, by the way. Heh,  _ bi _ the way. Get it? Cause I’m bi.] _

_ [Do you always share this much with strangers, Bi Guy?] _

~ooo~

_ [I dunno, are you going to keep being a Straight Male™?] _

_ [I don’t know what that means, but I’m not straight. Thats two assumptions on your part. By my calculations, that brings the score to (2, 2). A tie.] _

~ooo~

_ [Damn. You really are throwing me off my game. My best friend is agender so I rarely mess up with this kind of thing. _

_ [I know an agender guy. Not well or anything, but I’ve met him a couple times. He seems pretty cool.] _

~ooo~

_ [Calling them a guy and using gendered pronouns! (3,2). Tsk tsk tsk! What am I going to do with you?  _

_ And did you just pull the “I met a gay guy once” trope on me? Really?] _

_ [Bite me.] _

~ooo~

_ Only if you ask nicely. _

Bones isn’t sure what strange force has come over him, but suddenly he’s writing,

[ _ Maybe I will. _ ]

Below that, Leonard puts his number.


End file.
